Kasey Kahne (Left) and Richard Petty (Right) celebrate in victory lane at Atlanta Motor Speedway after Kahne won the Pep Boys Auto 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup race. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
Richard Petty Motorsports will merge with Yates Racing, running a four-car Ford operation with drivers Kasey Kahne, Elliott Sadler, AJ Allmendinger and Paul Menard, the teams announced Thursday.
A letter-of-intent has been signed by the organizations, which had fielded a combined six cars with Yates as Fords and RPM as Dodges this year. Out of a ride is RPM’s Reed Sorenson, and the Hall of Fame Racing-Yates Racing relationship that put Bobby Labonte in a car for most of the races this year will end.
It is another piece of transition for the RPM organization, which was formed in January by a merger between Petty Holdings and Gillett Evernham Motorsports. It ends the Petty-Dodge relationship, which was renewed when Dodge re-entered the sport in 2001.
“This is a pretty big deal for us,” Richard Petty said. “We’re thrilled to partner with Ford. We’ve talked with a lot of folks, but in the end it came down to the success the Gilletts and I think we can achieve with Ford Racing. Right now this deal is real new. There are lots of details still left to be ironed out so we don’t have a lot of answers for anyone right now.
“We’ll be working on all that in the coming days, weeks and months, but we do intend to have everything in place before the start of next season. I’ve won races with Ford and plan to again.”
No sponsorships were announced as part of the deal, and it also signifies that the Roush Fenway Racing No. 26 team will not be siphoned off to Yates Racing as Roush Fenway officials previously had hoped. There was no mention on whether the Roush Fenway-Yates relationship would continue.
“This is certainly a great opportunity for both Yates Racing as well as Ford Racing,” Yates Racing co-owner Max Jones said. “I have had a long-term relationship with Ford and look forward to continuing that relationship at Richard Petty Motorsports.
